Okay, we admit it-- we've been watching Apple's stock price so closely, it never occurred to us to watch Pixar's progress, too. Sometimes it's easy to forget that Steve Jobs is running two companies these days, and according to MacCentral, the "other company" isn't doing very well these days. Pixar, the company who brought the world Toy Story, has been hard at work on its next computer-animated full-length feature film, A Bug's Life, which, by all indications, should be a smash hit. So why has Pixar's stock price tumbled nearly 50% in the past few weeks?

If you watch a lot of TV or go to a lot of movies, you probably already know the answer: Antz. Antz is a new movie that, like A Bug's Life, is entirely computer-animated and features cute anthropomorphic insects with celebrity voices who do endearing things. There's one big difference between the two movies, however: Antz is being released first. You've probably seen commercials and previews all over the place, touting the film's October 2nd release date. Investors apparently feel that Antz will take a lot of wind out of the sails of Pixar's offering, and the stock price reflects that sentiment.

Now that Apple's on much more solid ground than it once was, Jobs is reportedly spending more and more time at Pixar trying to hold things together there. Is this recent crisis the catalyst that will cause Steve to announce he's finally stepping down from his "interim" position at Apple? We sure hope not, but if A Bug's Life doesn't do very well, Pixar may need a lot more of his attention, and there are only so many hours in a day...

We've got to admit, Apple's been pretty slick about the punctuality of its operating system releases ever since Mac OS 8 was first announced. For the most part, everything's been on time (at least technically), and when release dates slip a little, the slippage is so subtle and gradual, and Apple's got so many other cool things going on at the same time, most people don't even notice it's late. For instance, how many people have you heard complain about Mac OS 8.5 shipping late? After all, it was way back in February that we were hearing whispers that if Apple didn't jettison some of the planned features of what was then called Allegro, the system wouldn't be released until October. Well, guess what? We don't know if Apple jettisoned any features or not, but October's only ten days away-- there's no way that Mac OS 8.5 will be available that soon.

The good news is, it won't be much longer now. Most sources, including Mac OS Rumors, are reporting that Mac OS 8.5 has finally reached "golden master" status, meaning that it's in a final state ready to ship to the factory for duplication. Rumors estimates that the shrink-wrapped version should be hitting store shelves by October 14th or thereabouts. Sure, it's a little late, but by all accounts it's a real winner-- and we're willing to bet that there won't be many complaints when users actually install the software on their Macs.

On another note, last February we recall telling you all that the first customer release of Rhapsody had slipped to May, or "early summer" at the latest. Well, it's only days before autumn, and we're still at least a couple of months away from release. But again, who's complaining? Apple's accomplished so much in the past year, it seems hardly anyone's even noticed the delay.

By now you've surely heard some people complain that the iMac, though only $1299, is "too expensive." (Frankly, we find that complaint scarcely believable, given all you get for the money, but people have different priorities.) And despite the fact that the iMac was the best-selling computer of any platform last month, there are those who feel that the iMac doesn't stand a chance of competing long-term in the fiercely-contested consumer computer market unless Apple drops the price. And there have been plenty of rumors circulating that Apple's planning to do just that-- several sources claim that the iMac, in its current configuration, will drop to $999 for the holiday season, when Apple releases a $1299 sequel that will most likely boast a faster G3 processor, more RAM, and possibly a DVD-ROM drive capable of displaying movies on the integrated screen.

However, for those of you who are dying for an iMac but can't afford to spend $1299 and don't want to wait until Thanksgiving for the prices to drop (maybe), there's now yet another option. Refurbished iMacs are already starting to surface at some mail order retail houses. For instance, MacConnection lists refurb iMacs with a 90-day warranty with a price of $1099. Our assumption is that since these units aren't described as "factory-refurbished," they might actually just be iMacs that were returned to MacConnection by customers who decided that they needed something with PCI slots or a SCSI port; Apple's made it notoriously difficult for manufacturers to return iMacs to Apple, charging them a $400 restocking fee for returned iMacs that aren't actually damaged. Rather than eat the cost, MacConnection might be selling these perfectly-good but opened-box models for $200 less than a brand new model. Heck, it's cheaper than paying the restocking fee. (Please note, this is entirely speculation on AtAT's part-- we haven't a shred of actual evidence that MacConnection's refurbed iMacs are just returns.)

Of course, it's up to you to decide if saving $200 is worth trading in nine months of warranty coverage. Plus, most places selling iMacs for $1299 are also throwing in an extra 32 MB (and, in MacZone's case, 64 MB) of RAM. Our personal take on things is that the vast majority of buyers would be better off spending the extra $200 for a new system with extra RAM, but hey, isn't it nice to have a choice?